on reality, truth and discovery

Month: August 2018

The year is 2000 and you watch as your stage-coach from 1875 comes rolling into town just past the electric tram. Your fully loaded stage of 4 passengers stops at the airport as the 747 Airline to Dallas is just taking off. Why? Because you can in Transport Fever!

Is this game perfect? Nothing rarely is but if you enjoy Cities Skylines or SimCity you just might really like Transport Fever even more.

The not-so-good (probably)

Before I mention all that’s good about Transport Fever, let’s get some of the basics, technically speaking, out-of-the-way that could be considered negatives with this game.

Tycoon Game?

Users have mentioned that Transport Fever is not a true transport tycoon game because there is no competition with other networks. You are alone in this game as you build your networks and try not to go broke in the process (unless you are using the no cost mod of course).

Learning Curve

There is a learning curve in Transport Fever but it’s mostly due to a somewhat poor designed menu system that appears to be a bit out dated IMO. The fonts in the menus are also smaller than they need to be which can make general navigating a daunting task until you get used to what the options do and where they are located. You will also encounter some redundancy in menu options which can be quite confusing at first. For example, opening up the new line option can be done by clicking on multiple locations. (Note: Fonts can be scaled larger in the settings menu (upper right) but doing this enlarges the bottom task bar and other menus to something too large for my liking!)

Laying Train Tracks

Generally track laying in Transport Fever is fun but sometimes you will find the track (and roads) do not want to go where you want them to due to uneven and height variations in terrain. Using the in-game terrain height overlay option can help. (It is located in the bottom right menu.) Helpful note: A flat terrain works best for track laying but mountains and hills are fun and challenging maps to play.

If your computer CPU and GPU are not very powerful, like mine, your frame-rate will suffer on larger maps and in later years when more transportation networks are working at the same time. (My system: AMD Phenom II 945 x4, 8gb ram, GTX 750ti 4gb)

YouTube Gameplay of Transport Fever can help when you are just starting out or anytime

I highly recommend watching YouTube videos of basic gameplay and read about the game in the steam community for Transport Fever. (On YouTube I suggest Skye Storme or Colonel Failure as great places to start.)

The Good

A little bit like a Virtual Model Railroad

Transport Fever features virtually unlimited track manipulation for creating a simple model rail system. Don’t want to mess with the mechanics of transporting all the goods? In Transport Fever you don’t have to. Want to transport only food? You can. If you just want to transport people from various cities and watch your towns grow, you can do that too. And with the no cost mod enabled you can create rail lines, ship lines and air transport lines galore. While Transport Fever can be a great sandboxy type game for laying rail, it is not a very realistic virtual model railroad because you do not have as much control over your trains as you would in a real model rail layout. Also, Important to note you cannot drive the train but you can ride along with it. Note that in later years, a better computer system will be desired to fully enjoy your extensive transportation network.

Graphics and Optimization

Transport Fever looks and plays better than Cities Skylines and I have an old machine (AMD Phenom II 945 x4, 8gb ram, GTX 750ti 4gb) until you get into the later years especially on the larger map sizes.

Sound

There are lots of sounds in this game. Some are wonderful and some can get downright annoying and repetitive (I’m thinking of the default airport, birds and train stations). But guess what? If you enjoy tweaking game files, (back up originals first) you can remove or even change certain sounds in the sounds folder. (HINT: There is a silence.wav sound which I found came in handy if you simply desire, silence. )

No Cost Mod and No End Year Mod

The Cost option comes included with the game and it makes Transport Fever the ultimate model railish transport sandbox. Enjoy laying train tracks, roads, airports? Lay them at your heart’s content and why not put in multiple tunnels underground or a giant bridge across the lake, because you can.
The game also includes a NO END YEAR mod so you can use that Stage Coach in 2047 and beyond.

Mods

This game uses community mods and they make an already great game expandable. The creators of these models and mods are truly talented artists!

A big thank you to the creators of these great models, skins and mods!

Conclusion

Learning curve, room for improvement? yes and yes but I highly recommend this game for the beautiful trams, stage coaches, trains, the sounds, the planes, the trucks, the endless train tracks and the fantastic working mods and models found on the Steam Workshop…….

Need Help?

As always feel free to ask if you need some basic help with Transport Fever and I will try to point you in the right direction.

The advertisement you see above is by Republican Elizabeth Heng and has been blocked by Facebook. Why? Because censorship of Conservatives, Christians and Republicans is becoming the new norm for Democrats and people who don’t want the masses to know what is true.

Is Subnautica an overrated game? Of course. Despite poor optimization, massive texture pop-in, and inexplicable frame-rate drops, Subnautica gets promoted as one of the best games in existence.

Is Subnautica a fun game? The short answer is yes. But I cannot ignore the seemingly random frame drops and studders regardless of the graphic settings.

Subnautica also has another (albeit most likely unintentional) feature most people might not realize. Intentional or not, Subnautica might just well share some allegorical tones with Christianity. Let’s take a closer look.

Important to note: What follows contains spoilers

Subnautica is an underwater survival game in which you, the player, have crash landed on an alien planet. The planet is filled with alien sea creatures–some scary and some cute and friendly while others are downright deadly.

In a similar way, the earth we live on is filled with people, some of which are hostile to others, mean and outright murderous. And still many people are genuinely nice, friendly and trustworthy. For a Christian, we know the hostility many face is because of our simple belief and trust in the God of the Bible—namely Jesus Christ.

In Genesis from the Bible we learn that the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, sin entered our world and has infected all of mankind. (Sin in our world is the breaking of God’s law (the Ten Commandments)).

In Subnautica the primary goal’s are to find a cure for the Kharaa bacterium and ultimately leave the planet (since it’s not your real home).

Today, the world needs a cure for sin otherwise they will be facing God on Judgment when they die without their sin fixed and taken care of. To the Christian, earth is not a permanent home because heaven is our ultimate hope.

Deliverance

In Subnautica, the planet’s inhabitants need a savior–someone to rescue it from the doom it is facing. You the player, also need to be rescued.

In real life, we each find ourselves (whether we admit to it or not) in far worse predicament. Since God is holy and perfect He cannot have sin in his presence which means no sinful person can be in His presence without being consumed by His judgment. Sort of like a dry leaf being consumed by fire. And as a good judge must punish a lawbreaker God must deal with our breaking His laws. God being just and righteous means He must punish sin wherever it is found. Ever broke God’s law? Let’s see. Ever lied? Stolen something? Hated someone? God views human hatred as murder. Lusted? Jesus said to look with lust is the same as adultery (see Matthew 5:28). Ever used God’s name as a cuss word? Hitler and Muhammad names are not even hated as much to be used as a cuss word. To use God’s name to express disgust is blasphemy. The point is, we All have sinned by breaking God’s perfect holy law and need someone who hasn’t sinned to save us from judgment in hell.

In the game Subnautica, a rescue attempt is made by the spacecraft Sunbeam. As the Sunbeam descends onto the alien planet it is immediately destroyed, killing all the crew on board.

To me this valiant attempt at rescue by the Sunbeam could be looked as in similar terms as current world religions and people groups who try to persuade people to believe anything but what is true about God, the Bible and Jesus. They come with a message full of a different Jesus or no Jesus at all the results are the same—it’s all done in the effort to deny, suppress or ignore who God really is and the reality of our sinful offense against God Himself.

Hope

As there should be in any great game, there is a hope in Subnautica but it has nothing to do with God, Jesus or the Bible. A large sea creature called the Sea Emperor and something known as Enzyme 42 is where you will find this hope. The Sea Emperor is the only source of Enzyme 42 and ends up dying while her young hatch and save the planet (and you). They hold the cure to saving the infected planet.

In real life, God is the only one who can save mankind from coming judgment against sin. God paid the penalty of our breaking His law through Jesus Christ. Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, took the punishment for sin by dying on a cross. While we cannot fully understand God’s sacrifice for our sin or what He went through and the love He has for us (since He’s God and we’re not) we do know he rose again after three days. Jesus’ in completing the payment for sin was raised from the grave which ultimately demonstrated His love for all who believe in Him. So Jesus defeated death (punishment in hell), sin and judgment for all who repent and trust in Him. Do you know where you are going after you die?

He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:3-6)

What is sin?

What is sin? You might say it’s doing something bad. What “bad” is to me most certainly doesn’t mean the same thing to someone with another worldview. Without some independent standard for right and wrong it could be considered a broad statement to try to pin down in practical terms. But if we can get specific about what sin is there can be no debate. (Of course people might try but it ultimately won’t be a debate with me.)

So what is it? Simple put, sin is transgression or the breaking of God’s Moral Law.

The Ten Commandments is the standard God uses to define what is evil (or bad). It’s not a standard made any human with imperfections or fallibility. God’s standard for right and wrong is perfect because God is perfect.

Here’s a quick sample of the “test” God will use to measure the worthiness to enter His presence. How will you do? (Remember God requires perfection to enter His Kingdom. More on this later)

Always put God first in your life? (1st, 2nd commandments)

Ever lied? (9th commandment)

Stolen something? (8th commandment)

Hated someone? God views human hatred as murder. (6th commandment)

Lusted? Jesus said to look with lust is the same as adultery (see Matthew 5:28). (7th commandment)

Ever used God’s name as a cuss word? Hitler’s and Muhammad’s names are not even hated as much to be used as a cuss word. To use God’s name to express disgust is blasphemy. (3rd commandment)

What is love?

Before I get back to sin and God’s standard let’s switch gears for a moment. It’s probable you have heard much or at least some about God’s love or that Jesus loves you. There are bumpers stickers, shirts, signs, posters, and more with the words God love you! But have you ever wondered what that really means what that actually looks like practically speaking? We know love can mean different things to different people and with an “anything is acceptable” mentality in today’s world becoming increasingly more popular, love might mean something unnatural, non-traditional or both—think gay marriage. Perhaps love to you is that great care and concern you have for your child or a friend or parent. Maybe it’s plain old romantic love, traditional or not, that comes to mind.

But what about the love of God. I will admit I still have struggles completely pinning down God’s kind of love when all I can relate to is human kinds of love with all its imperfections and inconsistencies it might bring with it.

Yet, I will attempt to sum up a small picture of what God’s love really looks like by showing you a glimpse (an important glimpse) of who God is.

I mentioned earlier about sin that is when we break the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments aren’t the sin, it’s the breaking of them. Lying for example. Adultery, Murder. Not loving God and putting Him first in our life. A quick look at The Good Person Test shows we have all broken God’s moral law.

God, because He is so holy and perfect, cannot have sin in His presence. He therefore, because of His very nature or essence being that of holiness, must punish all lawbreakers. Hell exists for lawbreakers/sinners by the way.

And yet God did something indescribable even when we all deserve eternal death also know as judgment in hell.

God made a way of escape. The Creator of the Universe namely Jesus Christ paid the penalty as the perfect sinless sacrifice for us breaking His moral law. He did this by dying willing for our sins on a cross and taking the full punishment and anger by God put on Himself. Because God hates sin so much, the Bible states that Jesus was crushed for our iniquity/sins. And then Jesus because He is God was raised up from grave after three days proving His earlier claims to be God and defeating eternal death.

The Bible states it like this,

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [acceptable payment or sacrifice] for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

The kind of love which God shows us is that He can be the only Savior from certain doom, is the perfect sinless sacrifice and ultimately the only salvation for those who repent and put their trust in Him as the Savior.

It’s important to clarify only two options exist for humanity. After we die physically each person will enter either eternal life or eternal death. God in His mercy has loving granted us a choice even when what we all should be getting or deserve is eternal death (judgment in Hell).

When you repent from your sin (turn from it as in changing your mind about committing sin) and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you from the wrath to come (judgment against sin), you will have eternal life! (John 3:36, Titus 3:4-7, Ro 6:23)

“When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)